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This is a material called “Bioboard”. (Yes, it is cardboard, but it is fairly high density/strength and about 1” thick.)

The company I work for actually uses this material to make laminated insert panels for office system partitions. We laminate HPL to either side and insert them into metal frames. We buy them in 4X8 sheets and 5X8 sheets and go through several units per month.

It’s kinda cool to see a whole bicycle made from it.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

You specify this stuff by the crush strength—Typical is around 200lbs.

When you roll it up or double it by folding, this number grows. The creases he makes in the folds will weaken it along that direction, but as soon as it gets bent 90 degrees the strength is again multiplied.

It’s no wonder it is strong enough to hold a larger person.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

I thought, “well, has anybody made bicycles out of wood recently?” Then I realized that cardboard is superior because it uses the I-beam or surfboard principle to reduce weight. You wouldn’t make a surfboard out of a solid chunk of wood (maybe the old Hawaiians did, but they didn’t know about foam and fiberglass). Cardboard is a cheaper form of foam + fiberglass. So I conclude this is not woodworking but really cool topic for woodworkers anyway.

-- Dave, New England - “We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are.” ― Tobias Wolff

You know you’re a woodworker when you think i could make oneI’ve got the shop I work at part time in the summer saving me the frame parts from the next wrecked bike that comes in. Things like seat tubes, bottom bracket shells and headtubes need to be metal, everything else can be wood.